Regarding Laura Petruska's Jan. 26 letter on tariffs: I’m pretty sure what the administration is trying to do with tariffs on things like solar panels and washing machines is jump-start our U.S. industries back to life. A worker in a high-tech factory makes more than a counter person at Starbucks or McDonald's. A level playing field is essential to regaining skilled manufacturing jobs in this country.

I’d really like to see Bill Gates emulate Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and put his billions to work on jobs, not charity. Go take a look at the new Blue Origin building at Kennedy Space Center to see what money well spent and new jobs look like. Ask yourself why we are sending money to a communist country – helping to prop up their imperialist government – and losing manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

The United States is a nation of builders and innovators. Let’s get back to that part of American exceptionalism.

Gordon Hemphill, Satellite Beach

50 years post-Vietnam era ...

1968 Indialantic: I was a young housewife who watched the news daily and was sickened by all the war news. We had three daughters and two sons. I studied them at the dinner table and pondered again that there were children in Vietnam who were the same ages as ours, who had been born, and were growing up, knowing nothing but fighting in their country.

“If this shameful, immoral war is still going on when our sons are of draft age, I am moving them to Canada,” I said.

My husband was shocked. “But it’s our duty to support the president.”

“Canada,” I repeated, while our children stared.

The events of that year are still vivid to me. I refused, defying my husband, to vote for Nixon, fearing the politician to be paranoid. We in Brevard County were only a couple of years into the desegregation of our school system in 1968, shell-shocked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, sensing that we were being lied to about the war which had never been declared a war.

One of our sons is now married to a terrific woman from Vietnam. Her parents escaped for their lives with her to America when she was 2 years old. They brought nothing with them except a couple of bags — one with clothing for their daughter and the other with food for her.

I am honored to know them.

Barb Bayley, Melbourne

Remembering '68 Tet Offensive

Please remind your readers that the 1968 Tet Offensive was a disaster for North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. They lost, by their own count, over 28,000 killed and 100,000 wounded, and expended virtually all their military stockpile in South Vietnam.

General Giap acknowledged that it was a total defeat, and except for the American press Tet would have ended their ability to subdue the South.

John F. Piowaty, Cape Canaveral

Educator Brooks truly inspires

This concerns the Jan. 24 letter praising the fact that Gerry Brooks came to Melbourne to share his encouraging views on education.

I agree, what an inspiration. I hope teachers everywhere listen to his message. As a teacher, I have also been discouraged by very academic programs for young children. Any teacher who has worked with young children for any length of time knows children learn best through play. They also like to laugh and have fun while learning, as we all do. When someone walks into a center-based classroom and sees children playing, that person needs to stay a while and watch and listen. Yes, the children are playing but at the same time, learning in the best way possible for them. Teachers in a play-based program spend hours planning activities that are fun but teach the important things that children need to learn. People responsible for writing laws concerning early childhood education need to spend some actual time in a classroom to see how children respond.

Brooks hits a responsive chord in all of us: Yes, we want to learn and yes, we want to have fun doing it. He reminds us that when a teacher is having fun, children have fun as well. Brooks' message to us is that humor really is the best medicine and one of the best ways to reach people, children and adults alike.

The next time he comes to Brevard County, I encourage every teacher to make a point of attending his workshop.